Esper are suppose to be designed around spirit and mind, but currently lack any arsenal of spells that follow those elemental types.
I picture Esper as being more of an evasive type of caster. He casts spells that weakens and hinders his opponent, and gives him advantages over opponent, then uses Damage over Time spells and carries a small supply of weak arsenal spells. Maybe let them have one big spell. I also picture esper more as a evil role. They might not deal out the most magic damage, but survivability is their specialty.
My idea of a basic fight with Espers is. Weaken Mob, Suffocate , Dot, weak spells to kill it, have a heal and one strong spell as backup with delays.
Espers would get their biggest ulti bonus at night and a small bonus for cloudy weather considering clouds would also darken the area by a little bit.
So I would agree with Alpha. Id say lets remove some spells and add new ones to take their space that are Spirit and Mind.
1. Give them Mind Spirit bonus damage with spirit spells. Now both Mind Fire and Mind Ice are Tier 4 spells, and Mind Electric is Tier 3. So im thinking of either Making it tier 3 or moving them all up to tier 4? Or all down to tier 3? Not sure.
2. A spell Ive been thinking on that would be neat would be a "Life Suck" or "Soul Suck". Drains targets HP, and restores your HP. Evil Aligned Spirit Based. Mid tier4, delay(30-60secs). Basically comparable to heal but with delay if you have on Mind Spirit and or cloudy weather.
3. Also adding Damage over times spells. Espers currently have two spells that are the same thing. Nightmare, and Psi Panic. Both cause target to flee in horror.
Lets change Nightmare into a DoT spell.
You channel your mind into the mind of your opponent and fill it with horrific
images of blood, gore and death - its own death! If successful you can cause
your opponent to cause their nightmares to come to life and do damage over the course of the battle.
(Possibly with having a chance to give you an extra chance to attack when it does its damage. So it also can play as a type of weaken spell; Or possibly causing targets next spell/skill used to backfire.)
delay(45-60 seconds), Ulti for darkness, Mind based, Mid Tier 3, Damage lower or equivalent to magic missile. Just depends how fast the Dot spell works.
4. We also run into another 2 spells that do the same thing. Hold Person, and Paralyze. Now according to help file paralyze you can run away from with trap aware? What about hold person? Is that why there is a delay on hold person? I would need to see more info on these before I could give any ideas here on this.
5. I might say leave mana blast they way it is maybe lowering the level req / mana consumption a little to have as a OH SHIT spell.
6. Just an idea, be cool to see some type of spell that affects the whole room that gives a chance to make aggro mobs flee if they try to attack you first. More of a Support type spell, like a crowd control spell?
7. I think energy drain is a joke the way it is now, I rather see it deplete targets moves over time, slowing them down? Spirit Based, mid tier 4.
8. Bring in Alpha idea of a area attack, Mental blast. Mind, Tier 3.
You channel into the mind of your opponents around you causing them shriek in pain.
9. Bring in a spirit based spell equivalent to magic missile
Ex Spirit Call
You call on your ancestors spirits to attack your opponents soul.
10. Bring in a Mind based spell evil alignment does slightly more damage flat out then the spirit spell with something that forces the opponent to make a saving throw if not, gain an extra attack. If you fail they gain an extra attack?
Torment
Ex You try to channel thoughts of torment into your opponents mind causing damage. If the opponent can block you from entering their mind the thoughts of torment attack your mind causing them enough time to land an extra attack. If you enter their mind they must throw a saving throw to avoid you gaining an extra attack.
8. Now Id say lets strip some spells from them.
a. Remove Demonshriek( says its suppose to be priests best spell?)
b. Remove Flame Arrow
c. Remove Burning Skull
d. Remove Shocking Grasp
e. Remove Mind Electric and Water
So in the end we would have the following for Espers
Support Spells
Strength
Static Shield
Crowd Control type spell?(New spell)
Mind Spirit(New Spell)
Control Weather(remember clouds would cause a smaller ulti on spirit and mind)
Evil Eye
Phase
Fortify Body
Fortify Mind
Forsee
Static Shield
Shield
SteelSkin
life transfer
haste
Drunk(?)
Armor
Weaken Spells
Slowness
Numb Mind
Dispel Sanc
Confuse
Energy Drain(If changed)
Nightmare(If changed)
Suffocate
Cone of cold(weaken/offensive)
Chill Touch(weaken/offensive)
Poison(crap in battle?)
Offensive Spells
Life Suck(New Spell)(Offensive,Support)
NIghtmare(If changed DoT)
A basic spirit attack like magic missile(late tier 2, early tier 3) Maybe weaker then magic missile?
A little stronger mind spell(over the spirit attack)(evil align only, tier 4)
magic missile
Cone of Cold
Chill touch
Mana Blast
Mental Blast(New spell, like earthquake)
Plus the rest of the other odds and ends spells they have
create food and such.
Obviously this is the end goal that I would like to see Espers at, but it would need testing and I wouldn't jump in, do the changes small to allow testing.
In my eyes I see the casters as following
Mage(Big Damage flat out)
Esper( Evasive, weaken opponent, Dot, weakest damage spells, Survivability)
Priest(Evil align Big Damage, small support; Good align big Support, weak damage)
Im slowly working on the skill trees, so my ideas for how I would see mage or priest will be kinda tied into that.
